Not fair to contest from two constituencies: Prestone jibe at Mukul

Shillong, Feb 4: NPP national vice president and deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong said on Saturday it would not be fair for the leader of the opposition, Mukul Sangma, to contest two seats in the upcoming elections.

Tynsong, who filed his nomination papers on Saturday, said the constitution does not allow an MLA to serve multiple constituencies.

Mukul, who is a sitting AITC legislator from Songsak, has also decided to contest from Tikrikilla.

“My personal opinion is he (Mukul) has done that in the last term. If he again continues to do the same thing, I am very sure (people of) both the constituencies will not have faith in him,” Tynsong told reporters.

“If you contest from two constituencies, then you have to give up one. I think that is unfair. I am not at all agreeable or acceptable to contesting two or three or more constituencies at a time,” he added.

In the 2018 Assembly polls, Mukul won from both Ampati and Songsak. He later resigned from Ampati to pave way for his daughter Miani D Shira, who is now a sitting legislator of the said constituency.

Tynsong also questioned Mukul’s decision to join a Bengal-based party and said, “If he wanted to join NPP we would have said yes he is a citizen of Meghalaya, therefore, he wanted to strengthen the Meghalaya base party but he did not join the AITC.”

Tynsong, who is contesting from Pynursla, was also confident that NPP will cross the magic number and form the government on its own.

“The BJP last time in 2018 said that their wave is too good but all are cold waves. I am telling you that NPP wave prevails everywhere and we have full confidence that we will cross the magic number – 32-33 seats,” he said.

Tynsong was accompanied by his wife and son, besides leaders and supporters.

On the opposition terming the MDA government’s performance as ‘disastrous’, Tynsong said, “Let us wait and see on March 2 when the vote is counted. You will see and we will prove it that the mandate of the people will be in our favour and instead of disastrous, it will be victorious for us.”

To a query on whether NPP has decided whether to have a Khasi chief minister, Tynsong said for now, the party is focusing on fighting the election unitedly.

When asked, he said that the opposition AITC has proved that it is not at all serious about resolving the long pending border issue as it wants to scrap the MoU signed between the chief ministers of Meghalaya and Assam.

On the inner line permit, he said NPP is committed to pursuing it with the Centre. The party will also follow up on the inclusion of Khasi and Garo languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution.

With regards to the allegation of corruption against the MDA government, the NPP leader said anybody can just create confusion among people “but if they really have evidence why not they go as per law”.

Talking about his constituency, Tynsong said the civil sub-division is fully functional and the process is on to bring different departments to the sub-division.

“We have also got sanction for a mini secretariat. The work has just started and we will wait for one and a half years when the mini secretariat is completed everything will be shifted to Pynursla civil sub-division,” he asserted.